August 6, 2011 9:02 pm

Apartment Search 1.0

:note: Sonic Violence – “Asphyxia”

The apartment we looked at was so cute! :D It’s not huge, but it’s certainly tons bigger than what we have now. It has hardwood floors, a cute kitchen with a huge refrigerator and a stove that are both only 1.5 years old, and a crawlspace in the one bedroom where we could store stuff. And it has tall ceilings and a closet in the living room. The closet apparently used to house a weird trundle bed thing, but that’s been taken out and it just has a hang-y bar thing for clothes. The Granite Countertops Installation and quartz countertops in the kitchen are new (and nice and black) and the bathroom seemed adequate (shower/tub, toilet and sink).

The landlord (a nice lady named Summer) said some lady had her eye on it and was supposed to be dropping off the down payment soon, but Summer hadn’t heard from her since she was told that, so she was still showing the apartment. Fortunately, there isn’t an application fee, so we might apply just in case that other lady doesn’t come through with the money.

I’ll update more as things progress. We might still look at some other apartments, but this one is looking pretty nice so far.

Also, I am very very excited about my iPod. :excite:

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July 26, 2011 8:27 am

Summertime

I am so glad we decided to move home right before summer. We’ve had BBQs, swimming, berry-picking, camping, and loads of other things to do.

Wesley and his cousin Riley participated in the Kiddie Parade on the 4th of July. Riley steered the tractor (with my brother pulling) and Wesley rode in the wagon.

Kid's parade!

I made some play-dough one morning and Wesley loved it!

Playdough

We also go on bike rides. We got a bikeaboose (bike trailer thing) for him to sit in, and he loves going on rides. Lately he’s taken to pointing vigorously at the trailer and screaming because he wants in it, which is not very charming but kind of funny, and sometimes we give in and take him for a spin. He has his own baby bike helmet, silver with waves on it, and he’s a good sport about wearing it.

Baby Bikerider

I can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer has in store!

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July 22, 2011 1:08 pm

Nursing toddler-Wesley

Nursing Wesley right now is a difficult thing for me, but not for the reasons you might expect.

He’s nearly 16 months old now, and he’s become a quick nurser – usually five minutes or so and he’s done, and he really only nurses a few times during the day. However, since he weaned himself off the nipple shield a month ago, I’ve been having problems. Like, pain-and-damage problems. Cracks, bleeding, the whole works. During the 14.5 months he nursed with the shield (surprise, surprise) he did not learn to correct his latch problems.

His latch looks fine from the outside (lips turned out, asymmetrical latch, etc.) which makes this infinitely more frustrating. To the best of my knowledge, he just has a really shallow latch. I sandwich the boob and make sure the nip is the last thing in his mouth, but to no avail. I grit my teeth, bite pillows or my hand, and come away from every feeding with blanching, a compressed nip, cracks, and sometimes bleeding. I tried going back to the shield a few times in moments of sheer, eye-watering desperation but he isn’t having it and cries until I remove it.

Making this all the more complicated is that I have been looking into becoming an LLL Leader. It’s something I think I want to do, and there is definitely a need here as the current leader is somewhat inactive, but it’s extremely difficult for me to be enthusiastic about helping people fix their nursing problems when I can’t even fix my own. I feel like I should already know what to do, but I have no idea how to fix a persistent shallow latch in a TODDLER who has been perfecting this particular brand of nursing for almost a year and a half.

I don’t want to wean him; neither of us is ready for that. He’d be devastated and I’d be upset that I didn’t make it to two years. But I find myself avoiding nursing him, even if he asks for it (by signing “milk” and then “please,” I die of the cute) because of the pain involved. I’m applying Lansinoh like it’s my job, and I’m pulling on his chin and trying to tell him “big mouth, BIG MOUTH” to improve things, but I’m not sure what to expect with regards to healing if he does not correct his shallow latch. It’s been over a month, and the damage isn’t going away.

I love being a nursing mother, but man this is hard. I’m just not sure what to do!

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